Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1887-04-30
A Story of Pioneer Lire in Early Cali.
fornia Days.

fornia Days.
Yes, there are many, a greatmany, good
stories told by pioneers. some more excel
lent than true. A few years after our oc-
cupation of the state | was stationed in
southern California, near Los Angels, and
one afternoon | strolled out to the scene
of the Los Angeles massacre, in which a
friend of mine, a young officer, and some
enlisted men had been killed by the Mex
leans some time before. While endeav-
oring to get a good idea of the position oc-
cupied by Jul troops | accidentally stirred
up the earth with my shoe, and looking
down | saw something glisten like gold in
the sur I picked it up and found it to
be a human finger bone, and still on it the
West Point class ring of my dead friend,
marked with his graduation. | had visit
ed his family in New England, so l wrote
to them. inclosing their boys ring and ex-
planning how it had come into my posses
sion. In the course Of time | received a
very grateful answer, requesting me, II !
could identify the young mans remains,
to have them disinterred and sent home. |
found the remains and shipped them,
nicely boxed, to the depot quartermaster,
then in San Francisco, requesting him to
hold them, as | would co ne along in a
month myself and reship them. In due
time [ received another kind letter an
~nouncing the arrival of the remains, ard
the family seemed not able to thank me
enough for what had beer no trouble to
me at all. Later on, having been granted
Il leave of absence. which [ was spending
in the east, / found myself in New York
city and | received an invitation to visit
the family again. So IL Saturday morn
ing | started and reached the lovely old
homestead, which was beautifully situated
in a New England town. | Na.s Hospitality
received. On the following morning,
Sunday, I was taken to the little cemetery
and shown my friends grave, over which
had been erected a beautiful monument
inscribed with his name, military history,
and the date and manner of his death.
After a delightful visit [ LEFT, and my leave
being up. I received orders to proceed to
San Francisco to report for duty as depot
quartermastef. In those days quartmas
tiers when relieving each other, were very
careful to see that all public property re-
ceipted for, even to the last bolt, was there
in the store house before touching a pen
to the receipts relieving the other from
responsibility. The amount Of property
was great, and it took MT four days to yer
ify it according to the invoices.
On the invoices we're some original
boxes of stovepipes-that is to say, some
which had never been opened. While go
inc around with the quartermaster ser
geant, on the afternoon Of the sourth day,
we came to the boxes Of stovepipes. Being
original packages, | did not order them to
be opened, but satisfied myself by moving
them slightly in order to see if they were
Of the proper weight. l had moved six
teen or seventeen Of them, when M
seemed unusuallylight, and l directed the
sergeant to open it. He did 50; raised the
lid Of the box slightly, and looked in. |
noticed him quickly drop the lid and start
back with a heightened look on his face,
and | said:
"What is the matter, sergeant; isn't it
all right?"
mo, sir; there's no stovepipesin there"
he half gasped out.
| said: 'sSYhat is there in the box?'
He said: ssThere's bones-human bones
sir. [ saw a SKULL
The truth then flashed across my mind.
I had made a mistake and shipped the
wrong stevepipe box to to the old home
stead in New England. | paid the gov
eminent the price of one box of ~stovepipes,
gave the old quartermaster a full receipt,
had the remains nicely buried in San
Francisco and until this movement / have
never breathed it. But a lovely white
marble monumen in that pretty little
New England town marks the last resting
place of my box of stevepipes.
a GREAT SHEEP RANCH.